Forgetting Birthdays, Lies and Terrorist Milestones

My birthday is this week and most people I know don’t know when that is (until now I suppose), and that’s fine by me. I represent one extreme among people, those who don’t like to make a big deal of their birthdays. Since I was a kid, birthdays have never been a big deal.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are others who won’t let you forget that their birthday is coming, starting a countdown weeks and even months before. That’s not my orientation, but I guess they have their needs and reasons.

Either way, a birthday is a good opportunity to assess achievements and blessings of the previous year, and to look forward to hopefully a good year ahead. This is especially so in a season when New Year’s resolutions are in vogue.

Also, as a husband for more than 20 years and father to six children for most of that, I have learned that no matter what, it’s not good to forget your wife’s or child’s birthday.

This all comes to mind because not just the anniversary of my birthday (which I share with people such as Simon Wiesenthal, George Marshall, Ben Kingsley, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins and Donna Summer), but on the actual day I was born, another significant milestone occurred in mid eastern politics, one that the protagonists at the time and their successors would like you to forget.

The day I was born was also the day that the PLO was born, the Palestine Liberation Organization. Today it’s been sanitized to call the PLO by its Arabic acronym, Fatah, as if it’s just a political party, which claims to be the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people. But it’s not. Hamas surely doesn’t think so. For most of the past five decades, the PLO has stood out in one thing alone, terrorism.

Take a look at the Palestinian National Charter, the governing document written six months before the PLO’s birth, and see what the PLO stands for, and how they might measure their success of the past, and goals for the year ahead. Here are some highlights, but you can read the full enlightened Charter at http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/853668C3E95F8E068525785500565876

· Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit.

· Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. Thus it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase.

· The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time…

· Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood.

· The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine.

Basically, Jews have no historical or religious ties to Israel, only Jews who lived there prior to 1917 are entitled “Palestinian” citizenship, and the only way to remove Jews and annihilate Israel is through violence. Hardly liberal or neighborly, hardly any wiggle room to negotiate from, and just a little against God and what is the truth. But these are minor details; the world loves their duplicitous lying.

On the surface, one might think that the PLO (Fatah) is the more moderate of Palestinian groups which include other All-Star Jew-hating terrorists such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and a home grown Al Qaida among others. But the PLO Charter makes it every bit as hateful and hate-filled as that of these others; denying the very legitimacy of Israel’s existence, our right to be here, and preaching hatred and violence as THE solution to what they term the “occupation.”

There’s no lack of clarity here. There’s just a lack of understanding, or a willingness to be misled. Or both.

Why is there no lack of clarity? Why is the PLO (Fatah) still the same old terrorist organization that they always were? In fact, there are many reasons, however, one is telling. You see, the PLO was born in December 1964. Its’ delegitimizing of Israel, calls for terrorism, denouncing the partition of (British Mandate) Palestine, and cries to end the “occupation” all started three full years before Israel’s victory in the Six Day War (June 1967).

Today, the PLO (Fatah), and it’s sympathizers like to say that they are only talking about the “occupation” and “borders” since June 1967. But that’s a lie. You can’t teach an old terrorist organization new tricks. You can give credence to their lies by not challenging them. But a lie is a lie and a terrorist is a terrorist. That needs to be crystal clear as they “celebrate” their 48th birthday.

Obviously, to make peace, we need to reach an accommodation with our enemies. Successive Israeli governments, including the present one, have indicated a willingness to do so, making painful sacrifices along the way that have neither brought peace closer, nor left Israelis any safer. Palestinian intransigence and unwillingness to recognize Israel is the reason why we don’t have peace. Period.

So with the PLO’s 48th birthday looming, let’s remember that it was conceived and born a terrorist organization, and that’s what it remains. The lies they peddle are just a smoke screen so you won’t realize what they’re really about. Be clear about what they mean when they talk of “occupation” and “Palestine” and how terrorism is their only way to achieve their ends of annihilating Israel, regardless of the passage of time.

It’s a staged plan, and the lies are just a part of it. But we know that by standing for Israel, for what is right, and to affirm God’s promise, eventually the PLO, its sympathizers and its’ successors will dwindle and lose.